"Hello, Citizen," the Doctor said calmly as she stepped closer to a celebrating woman as the sky flashed with plasma fireworks.
The woman turned and smiled at her. The woman was beautiful, with caramel brown skin and deep brown eyes; the Doctor could see although she appeared to be in her early twenties, she felt much older, and she guessed the human had been genetically rewound, or her body clock had been slowed down; the technology was still relatively new by this point, but it was there.
"Hello, Citizen," the woman returned as she sipped her champagne. "Mm, this is a glorious day for the galaxy."
"Is it?" The Doctor stepped closer as she nonchalantly looked up into the sky. She quite liked fireworks. "Mm, yeah, you're right. It is glorious."
The woman didn't notice the Doctor's tone or her manner. She didn't even notice that the Doctor didn't seem sincere. "The galaxy is now rightfully ours, at last. All of those alien races," the Doctor frowned when she saw the darkened expression on the woman's face, showing what she thought of alien life only too well, but considering what humanity had been through over the last few centuries, she couldn't blame them for being xenocist, "have been beaten back. Now the galaxy is a pure, human galaxy."
"Yes," the Doctor nodded, fighting her inner disgust at what those words meant. The humans had largely wiped out hundreds of races, most of them hadn't even been hostile. The humans had done it mostly out of their fear of being slaughtered by the Daleks and the Cybermen during the more prominent wars, and the two galactic wars with the Draconians had merely stoked the anti-alien sentiment more.
She took a sip of her champagne, smacking her lips. She had to admit the partygoers had a great amount of food and drink, she hadn't had moon-ripened champagne for years.
"You don't seem excited," the woman said.
The Doctor noted the suspicion in her voice. "Oh, I am. It's a great time for humanity, a great renaissance of growth and peace and prosperity, and no aliens to stir up any troubles." Not that there were many aliens out there who were strong enough to fight off the humans at this point.
The woman seemed curious about her. The Doctor mentally wished she'd leave her alone. She had largely been greeting everyone celebrating the end of the Galactic Wars humanity out of politeness' sake before she left Trantor and moved around the galaxy, to see what was going on on the various worlds before the empire finally collapsed due to stagnation many millennia from now. She was not looking forward to seeing the chaos the galaxy had been plunged in by the Empire's hands, nor the aftermaths of the war the humans had been launching against all other sentient races for the past 500 years.
"What do you do, may I ask Citizen? I am a model myself-," the woman said, but the Doctor interrupted her, finding her as interesting as a slug; she was regretting coming up to this woman but she had decided to stay on Trantor for a bit even if she was disgusted by the parties that showcased the mass extinction event which had swept through the Mutters Spiral.
"Oh, I'm something of a scholar, really, a travelling scholar. I kept out of the fighting and largely documented it; I even have a few holos of the Galactic War, if you'd like to see…," the Doctor interrupted, slipping out her palm computer, hoping the stuck-up snob who seemed to delight in what her people had done would say yes.
"Er, no thanks," the woman smiled nervously as she stepped back. Now she looked edgy.
"Oh, don't you want to see how glorious the Empire's imperial forces have burnt down dozens of worlds, some of them belonging to races and cultures with unique takes on life?" The Doctor knew she was walking a fine line; humanity had its moments of being completely fascistic and moderate, but this was one of those fascist times, but she was so grossed out by how the humans were acting she couldn't resist; even back in her original incarnation, when she had nothing more to do than worry about Susan's safety as they travelled in the TARDIS, the Doctor had always hated situations like this.
The Doctor tapped the palm computer and held it right into the woman's face. The horrified woman stared at the pictures, her flawless skin starting to turn grey although the Time Lady wasn't sure if it was down surely to the light of the computer. The Doctor held it in her face for two minutes, but it was more than enough time for other partygoers to see it and become sick.
Finally, the Doctor stopped and walked away, flipping her blonde hair in disgust. She walked away and she leaned against a window and looked out over the surface of Trantor. Much of the city was underground; the planet's atmosphere was fairly hostile, and one of the reasons why it was chosen as the Earth Empire's new capital world was because most carbon-based races couldn't breathe in the atmosphere, and even with simple breathing apparatus it was even more difficult. The only way to live here was in life-supported cities.
She hadn't expected to find herself at this point in history. She had been skimming up and down the timeline, visiting Earth at intervals after using the Monk's TARDIS to acquire time travel. She had only jumped here a few years ago, using spaceships to travel from one world to the next, having to forge ID papers and regretting every moment of coming here while she waited for the chance to jump away to keep her distance from the Time Lords.
The Doctor hated the Empire. She hated the posturing. She hated the arrogance. She despised the way the humans justified their mass murder because they said they were killing planet after planet by saying they were trying to make a pure-human galaxy, and they felt the only way to do it was to commit mass genocide.
She leaned her head against the reinforced glass and sighed.
She wished she were travelling in her lovely TARDIS, landing in random places and getting involved before leaving again. Sure, those journeys had been chaotic and frustrating since she couldn't go where she wanted, but now she knew the TARDIS had been taking her to places and times where she needed to be.
And she missed it.
It was better than this, spending so long in times she'd never really considered viewing, only to stay for long periods as she moved around on spaceships just to avoid using the manipulator.
But this time her endurance was wearing down, and the Doctor just wanted to flee.
She sighed and pushed herself away from the exo glass and took a swig from her champagne flute. It was time for her to go; maybe she would go to Florana, and spend a few years there, anything to get away from this miserable time zone. The Empire could have its glory for all she cared.
The Doctor was about to leave when she saw two men wearing security police uniforms underneath plate body armour. Their faces were thuggish with only a molecule-thin layer of respectability sprayed over them. And they were walking towards her.
"Citizen, you are under arrest," one of them said to her.
The Doctor precisely why but bluffing was a part of her nature. "Why?"
"Inciting treason," the second said.
The Doctor said nothing. She slammed a hand down on her vortex manipulator and vanished in front of the surprised gazes of everyone in the hall.